Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group for tabling this motion on eliminating the means test for family carers. It echoes part of the motion I tabled on supporting family carers. While there are many ways in which family carers need to be supported, eliminating the means test for the carer's allowance is one of my two top priorities alongside the provision of adequate respite care for family carers. That is also essential to support them in their 24-7 work. We often use the phrase "24-7" without thinking about what it means. It means caring every hour of every day and night, seven days a week. That is the reality of 24-7 care. That is the life of a family carer. We ask the Government that the carer's allowance be paid to family carers without means testing. Family Carers Ireland has long campaigned to ensure this becomes a reality. An important point is that the person being cared for has to be shown to need full-time care. This is not a part-time effort. It has to be certified as full time. That is what the carer's allowance is for.

Making the carer's allowance exempt from a means test would signify a paradigm shift in that family caring is not just seen as some sort of add-on that mostly women and sometimes men do in the home but as something supported by the State because the State recognises that family caring is an essential part of how we organise and manage our society. For too long, as Deputy Connolly said, caring was seen as women's work. That is why the carer's allowance is means tested. Often, the man was seen as the provider and women managed the home. That is the mindset from which the carer's allowance emerged. It needs to be changed.

My final point is about the cost of getting rid of the means test.

See this speech in context